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- An introduction to sega: the
Materials and preparation
- Have a globe or map on hand that includes this small island. You'll need either a very detailed world map or map of the Indian Ocean, or perhaps a map of Africa that includes Madagascar and nearby islands. If necessary, use a local map to find the island, then a globe or world map to locate the area covered by the local map.
- Find video and/or audio examples of sega music for the students to watch and listen to, and the necessary equipment to play the examples for the class. You may use audio recordings, but video recordings are preferable, since they let the students see the dancing and the instruments. As of this writing, an
ABAIM video shows children singing a sega song, along with some typical instruments, and
Filouamoris's blog also has video showing typical dress, instruments being played, and typical movements. An internet search for "sega dance" should turn up some useful video.
- Familiarize yourself with the information on the
island and its
music , and decide which information you will present to the class. This will depend on your comfort level with discussing elements of music, as well as the grade level of the students.
Procedure
- Tell the students that Mauritius is a small island east of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. Help the students locate Mauritius on a detailed globe, map of the Indian Ocean, or world map.
- If you are going to tie these lessons to some other subject the class is studying (see suggestions
above ), include that discussion here.
- Give the class a quick introduction to the island. You may want to include an age-appropriate summary of the
Information about Mauritius below. As much as possible, tie the information to any other relevant information the class has been learning about geography, music, history or cultural studies.
- While discussing the island's history, use the globe or world map to help the students identify all of the countries (Madagascar, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, England, and India) whose people have participated in the island's history.
- Play some short audio or video examples of sega music.
- Following each recording, have a short class discussion of the cultural and musical elements of sega as revealed by the recordings. Below is some
information about the music which you may wish to share during the discussion (for example, by naming some of the instruments for the students), but as much as possible, have the students discover these facts through careful observation and listening.
- If necessary, start the discussion of a recording by asking leading questions about it. (See
Suggestions for Discussing Recordings .)
- Mauritius is a volcanic island. There are no active volcanoes there now, but the landscape is still very mountainous. The climate is subtropical, with wet and dry seasons rather than hot and cold.
- Arab traders apparently knew of the island well before 1500, but they never attempted to settle there.
The Portuguese definitely discovered the island in the early 1500's, but also were not interested in settling there.
- The Dutch named the island Mauritius, and tried a couple of times in the 1600's to establish a colony there, but failed and abandoned the island. It was during this century that the dodo became extinct, due to over-hunting and habitat destruction.
- The French called the island "Isle de France", and successfully established a colony there in the 1700's. As was typical in so many European colonies of this period, people from Africa and Madagascar were brought in and enslaved to do the hardest work.
- In the early 1800's, as part of the fallout from the Napoleonic wars in Europe, the island was turned over to British rule. The British abolished slavery and changed the name of the island back to Mauritius, but allowed the inhabitants to keep their language, laws, and customs. To replace the enslaved labor on the island's sugar plantations, indentured laborers were brought in. Most of these laborers were from India, but some also came from China, Malaysia, Madagascar, and Africa.
- During the 1900's, along with much of the rest of the European-settled parts of the world, the island won its independence and took important steps towards equality and human rights. Cultural differences still create tension, particularly between the Creole population descended from the French plantation-era population, and Indo-Mauritians descended from the indentured laborers.
- But, as commonly happens wherever people from diverse cultures come together, a vibrant and interesting new culture has been created as people combine their favorite aspects of the imported cultures. For example, although many languages are spoken on the island, the most common is a Creole created from French and African languages. Just as a Creole people is created when people of different ethnicity combine to form a new group, a Creole language is also created when two languages are combined to form a new one. Creole cultures often also invent a new kind of music, by combining two different traditions, a sort of musical Creole.
Sega music is a good example of this. It originated among the slaves of Mauritius in the 1700's.
Source:
OpenStax, Musical travels for children. OpenStax CNX. Jan 06, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10221/1.11
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